


Flirting Games

by butimnotinthefandom



Series: VLD One Shots [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance, F/M, Feels, Flirting, Games, Gay Keith, Love, M/M, Multi-POV, Multiple Points of View, Romance, bi lance, klangst, multiple POVs, vld
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-13 21:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11768289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butimnotinthefandom/pseuds/butimnotinthefandom
Summary: The Paladins have a pick up line contest in their spare time.





	Flirting Games

**Author's Note:**

> Official Good Faith Disclaimer: This story is a noncanonical fan fiction of Voltron Legendary Defender, which belongs to DreamWorks Animation LLC. ™ World Events Productions LLC. I claim no ownership to copyrighted characters or universes portrayed herein and make no financial gains from this work. Please don’t sue me, this is the primary and most effective coping mechanism I have to deal with crippling Depression and Anxiety. The express purpose of this story is merely for the fan enjoyment of myself and others. I thank the production team, cast, crew, DreamWorks, World Events, and Netflix for their contributions to the entertainment industry and our lives through the official release of Voltron Legendary Defender.
> 
> Unofficial Good Faith Disclaimer: Any fanon references within this story are made with complete respect and homage to both the appropriate fandoms as a whole and the original individuals who shared ideas, jokes, and commentary. Stay fanatical, my brethren.
> 
> This story started out as a chaptered series but, alas, the wind has left my sails for that. I’ve decided to post parts of it as one-shots so here you go.
> 
> In this story, Allura is in the human equivalent of her early twenties.
> 
> Official thanks to my favorite beta reader, [AmbitiousSkychild](http://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbitiousSkychild).

Lance

Lance plopped down on the couch between Keith and Hunk where they were reading.  It was probably something boring about the species they were on their way to meet.  His friends were diligent and focused but Lance was restless so he sprawled out on the cushions, his back nearly brushing against Keith.  He swept his eyes up and down Hunk’s form and smirked.

“Is your dad a preacher?  Because you are a blessing.”

He didn’t look up from his text, “Didn’t we take a class together?  I could’ve sworn we had chemistry.”  A quiet scoff sounded from Pidge, who was nestled on the floor in her own personal zone with blue transparent screens in the air around her and a tablet in her hands.

“It begins.”  She mumbled in a low, disapproving voice.

Lance and Hunk had a routine between themselves wherein they competed for the best - which usually meant worst - pickup line.  It was a tradition that stretched back to their early Garrison days, although nothing they’d ever come up with was more amusing than the first time they had to explain their behavior to the Alteans.

“Your sweetness is my weakness,” Lance felt another delightful smirk scrawl onto his face as Hunk placed the tablet in his hand on the couch beside his leg:  He was going to play.

“Want to know how I got these guns?”  He flexed his arm for a moment, “Lifting children out of despair.”  Lance threw his head back and laughed with his full body.  He tried to ignore the feeling of Keith’s glare on him as the guy tried to shove him back out of his personal space.

Lance liked invading Keith’s bubble.

“Don’t let me be the one that got away.”

“There isn’t an adequate word in any language to describe how beautiful you are.”

“What’s a smart, attractive young -” Lance paused, “man like myself doing without your number?”

“You must be one hell of a thief because you stole my heart from across the room.”

“Lame.”  Shiro, who sat on the far side of Keith, crossed his arms over his chest with a saddened look as he shook his head.  “We all know you can do better, Hunk.”

“I know, right?”  Lance nodded, “If I had to rate you on a scale of one to ten, I’d say you were a nine because I’m the one you need.”  Everyone groaned and Hunk motioned to him like exhibit A.

“Like that tired old line was better than mine?  Here,”  Hunk captured Lance’s hand in his own and then held his other up in a cupping motion, “If I had a star for every time you brightened my day, I’d have a galaxy in my hand.”

“Aww, Hunk.” Allura scooched closer to the action and watched the two paladins with bright-eyed amusement, “I think he is back in the game.”

Lance cleared his throat, “My heart forgets to beat the moment I see you.”

“The only thing I want to change about you is your last name.”

Pidge peeked over her tablet with another quiet scoff and malicious grin.  She’d clearly fallen prey to their cheesy charm, “I’d like to calculate the the slope of those curves.”

Shiro tilted his head back and groaned, “Pidge, no!”

Surprise and delight streaked through Lance’s entire body as his teammate broke her longstanding streak of judgmental silence while they played.  He clapped his hands to his cheeks, “Pidge, yes!”

“Don’t encourage them,” Keith grumbled.

A delicious, awful thought sneaked into Lance’s brain.  He smirked and looked directly at Keith’s eyes as they rapidly turned from gray to violet, “You know what I like about fireworks?  They go -  _ pow! _ ”  As he spoke, he clapped his hands together and arced out in a circular motion to demonstrate a small explosion.  He let his left hand fall back to his own knee but smoothly draped his right around Keith’s shoulders.  He pulled him close after a moment for effect and the motion brushed his hair aside.  He could feel the back of his neck warm and soft against his skin and he was taken by mild surprise at just how much he enjoyed it when Keith squirmed a little.  No one else seemed to notice but Lance couldn’t help but take note of the blush creeping up Keith’s neck as his face filled with a mixture of surprise, outrage, and something he couldn’t identify but it made his throat run dry.

“I hate you.”  He growled.  The purple in his glower begged to differ.

Lance couldn’t help but tauntingly grin, “I am a delight.”

 

Shiro

Shiro’s heart began to beat a little faster the moment Allura moved closer to him as she’d complemented Hunk.  After Lance wrapped his arm around Keith, he saw his chance:   _ This is a bad idea.  Yep.  Gonna do it. _

“It may not be as good as fireworks but,” Shiro sat up a bit and touched his right hand to his left shoulder, “Let’s count shoulders:  One,” he tapped his own and slunk his hand across his collarbone, “two,” and then to Allura’s, “three,” he stretched his arm all the way across her back and pulled her close, “four.”

She peered up at him with a surprised smile on her face for a moment, “You’re a  _ phwib. _ ”

His brow knit together in question but his arm remained, “What’s that mean?”

She looked to Pidge, “What’s that thing you called him this morning?”

“Dork.”

“That’s it.”  Allura giggled softly with a melodic air and looked Shiro in the face, “Dork.”  He smiled an overly proud, teasing grin at her as everyone laughed.  Still - his arm remained.

Lance wiggled his eyebrows at Hunk, “I’m no weatherman but you can expect more than a few inches tonight.”

Allura leaned in even closer, “What are ‘inches’ again?”

He took a breath and glared at the boys as they obliviously continued their verbal duel.  At first, he just shook his head.   _ Nope.  I’m not going to be the one to explain it.  Not here.  Not now. _  However, after a moment, he decided he could give a succinct dictionary definition to her question and supplied an answer.  “A measurement of linear distance.”  She cocked an eyebrow and smirked as something registered on her face.   _ She understood that. _  Shiro allowed himself to stare for another moment before he swallowed the lump in his throat and forced himself to shift his attention back to the boys’ banter.

Keith still looked like he wanted to die nestled against Lance.

“My feet are getting cold,” Hunk paused, “because you knocked my socks off.”

“Weak.”  Lance thought a moment, “I didn’t believe in love at first sight until I saw you.”

“Are you a magician?  Because, whenever I look at you, the whole room disappears.”

It wasn’t until Allura slightly shivered that he realized he’d started to absentmindedly stroke her upper arm with his metal fingertips.  To his delight, she sort of scooched closer - as subtly as she could - and pressed her thigh against his.  Suddenly, he remembered himself:  They were surrounded by their crew - their teenage crew.  He hated himself for it but he repositioned his hand from her to the back of the couch. His heart skipped a beat as the quietest of huffs sounded from her.

 

Hunk

Hunk glanced past Lance to where poor Keith looked like he was ready to commit a murder-suicide.  They both knew this game wasn’t for everyone but Lance was always ready to take it too far.  He knew that was one of his friend’s favorite things about him - that Hunk didn’t have a ‘too far’ when it came to things like this.  When he was comfortable with someone, he was at complete ease.

The furthest the two of them had ever gone in a round had been as a team at the Garrison.  Two other pairs of students had seceded them the win moments after their lips pressed together.  It had been fun and everyone had a good laugh after it was over.  This time, with Keith, it felt different.

_ Time to play Lance like a fiddle. _

“No wonder the sky is gray today,” Hunk dipped his finger under Lance’s chin for a moment, “all the blue is in your eyes.”  Lance playfully bat his eyelashes; he withdrew his arm from Keith’s shoulders to place both of his hands against his cheeks again, this time in mock flattery.

_ Mission accomplished. _

“What time is it?”  Lance waited as Hunk looked at his tablet for a moment to inform him.  Lance grinned and ran the back of his hand down the Yellow Paladin’s cheek, “Now I can note the exact moment I met the man of my dreams.”

“Do your lips taste as good as they look?”

Lance, who’d leaned back into the couch in a relaxed drape, again looked back at Keith with a sly smile on his face:  “We’re like cocoa and marshmallows:  You’re hot and I want to be on top of you.”  Keith blanched and then blushed.

Hunk grabbed his friend’s shoulder and turned him towards himself.  He gave Lance a smouldering look and ran his hands down his arms to his elbows, “I love my bed but I’d rather be in yours.”

Lance grinned mischievously and looked Hunk up and down, “What’s a nice guy like you doing in a dirty mind like mine?”

“Remember my name, you’ll be screaming it later.”

Lance smirked and motioned to his own lap, “Nunvill isn’t the only hard stuff around here.”  He wanted to feel sorry for Keith as the rosy dust on his cheeks remained but he couldn’t help but laugh in shock.

“Oh my God,” Hunk slapped his hand to his forehead and ran it down his entire face as he joined in the cacophony of laughter.  Not to be outdone, once he recovered, he slipped his fingers along Lance’s jaw to his chin.  He held firm and pulled him closer until their noses almost brushed together as his every muscle tensed.  “You have stars in your eyes.”  Hunk spoke in a low voice full of complete earnestness and sincerity as he stared hard into the windows of Lance’s soul.

The other boy rolled his eyes for a moment, “Oh please -”

“No, see, that just made it worse.  You really do have stars in your eyes.  It’s a whole little galaxy in there:  They twinkle.  Like, I didn’t notice it until you laughed just now but they’re always there, aren’t they?  It’s like glimpsing eternity - all blue and black and bright, sparkling void that just kind of consumes a man and leaves him all too aware of his own mortality.”  Hunk noted the way Lance’s lips naturally puckered ever so slightly in unconscious preparation for a kiss that would never come and knew he was on the right track.  “When I look at you, I know I’m nothing but a speck in this ever expanding universe but at the same time, I’ve never felt more confident of my existence; I know I’m alive because of what I’m seeing right now.  It might be cliché of me to say but it’s so totally true:  You have stars in your eyes.”

Lance was breathless in his arms.  In fact, the entire room had stilled with baited anticipation of what his next move would be.  Hunk smirked as a smug feeling radiated through his chest and he leaned back into the couch, satisfied.  Silence reigned, shattered only by a long, drawn out, low and impressed whistle from Pidge where she sat on the floor.  Keith, still blushing, just looked at Lance while Shiro looked something between surprised and proud.  Allura stared sort of slack jawed and quiet, her features lit with awe but also a slight concern that made him worry he’d just earned himself a Lance-level sex talk from one of his leaders.  He quietly hoped the task wouldn’t fall to Coran.

“Kiss me!”  Lance whined.

Hunk laughed, “Oh my God, you’re so easy.  No.”

“Shit, Hunk.”  Lance slinked back with wide-eyes, “What the fuck?”

“Remember, young padawan, it’s not so much the line as it is what you do with it.”

“Can I use that?”

Hunk shrugged, “Maybe once you’ve leveled up.”

“So my eyes don’t really have stars in them?”  Lance mockingly gasped and placed his hand to his chest in feigned outrage for a moment before he held both his hands up in surrender.  “Alright, big guy, you win this one - but my eyes still claim partial credit.”  Hunk chuckled and shook his head as the tension in the air eased and everyone, except Keith, laughed.

 

Keith

He removed himself from the situation as quickly as he could after that.  Lance had been on a flirtatious streak that started to rev up on the last planet as he’d been surrounded by adoring young natives and had yet to slow down.  Keith wanted no part of it since the only thing in it for him was embarrassment and frustration.  The guy had no idea how he affected him and it irked him a little more every day.  Lance’s recent behavior was getting untenable as far as he was concerned and he wondered how long it would take him to crumble to temptation.

_ Like that would ever work.  You had to fall for the straight boy, you fucking idiot. _

Keith made his way to the tiny observation deck away from the others to brood in silence.  The space looked as if it’d once been a lounge meant for only a few people.  It was a tiny nook of an area with only a couple of spots to sit, tucked away in dim lighting and vibrant stars overhead.  He went there sometimes because it was peaceful and secluded to the point he’d never seen another paladin there.

He knew it had gotten bad when Lance’s laugh started to haunt his dreams.  The way it crescendoed, high and lofty like sunshine, or would tumble out low and dusky with an irresistible hint of things to come that never came drove Keith crazy.  The way Lance moved in battle when he didn’t think before he acted - just acted on instinct - and saved the whole damn day by his side made his insides twist.  The way he unendingly cared about anyone and everything with complete selflessness caused a hard  _ ping _ in his chest.

Keith understood every word out of Hunk’s mouth about Lance’s eyes and stars on a spiritual level but, if anything, they were more oceans - the kind that mercilessly drowned you if you didn’t know how to swim.  Those fucking eyes that would sparkle like the sea as they reflected whatever the internal mechanisms of his brain were working on at the moment pissed Keith off.  They could be narrow and focused when needed, or sly and mischievous, or bright and happy and he had to make a conscious decision to look away.  The worst was when they glared - and holy hell could they glare - because it was in those moments he knew he wouldn’t be able to look away.  The only hope Keith had was to challenge the anger in the look with his own and pray.  Those were some of the only times he felt any semblance of peace because he knew it meant Lance was genuinely as frustrated in that moment as he was all the time.

Fuck the way he was ever so slightly taller.  Fuck that golden skin that managed to look sun kissed even when they’d gone far too long since bathing in sunlight.  Fuck his skincare routine in general.  Fuck that chestnut brown hair that begged to have fingers run through it at every second of every day.  Fuck his smile.  Fuck his openness.  Fuck his drive.  Fuck his whole damn personality.  Fuck Lance.

He sighed as he felt eyes on his back.

“What, Lance?”  He growled out as the other boy joined him to stand at the window, “What do you want?”

He shrugged, “About that thing I said after dinner - about cocoa?”

“Don’t.”  That old familiar frustration and bitter longing filled Keith’s insides.  He took a deep breath in through his nose and purposefully masked himself behind anger and what he hoped looked like aloofness.

“Come on, I’m trying to apologize here, man.  I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable.  Hunk and I sort of get carried away sometimes.”  Lance edged closer so Keith turned to leave and purposefully bumped into his shoulder as he passed.

“Don’t say shit like that to me.”   _ Not if you’re not going to follow through. _

“I said ‘I’m sorry’!”  His voice was higher than normal and full of genuine frustration.

“You’re always sorry Lance.”  Keith spun back around and leaned in close to his face, “Try not saying it at all next time and you won’t have to be sorry.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”  Heat rose around the Blue Paladin’s collar this time.

“It means you never think before you speak!  You like to be just as surprised as everyone else by whatever shitstorm comes out of your mouth, don’t you?  Words matter, Lance!”  It was out of Keith’s mouth before he’d been able to stop it.  He didn’t really think that about Lance and he knew it:  He saw that he was one of the most caring, empathetic people on the team.  He was headstrong and showed off too much but, when it came to noticing if something was off, he was usually the first one to take note.  He was excellent at reading situations - which infuriated Keith all the more for his behavior tonight.

“It was just a stupid game, dude.  I didn’t think it’d make you this uncomfortable.”

“Like I said:  You never fucking think!”  Keith crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his sights onto blue eyes that’d grown darker with every word he’d said.   _ You’re not going to stop, are you, dumbass? _  “That little game is exactly what I’m talking about!  You literally make sport out of playing with people’s emotions!  It’s all a joke to you!  All you want is the next laugh to stroke your fragile little ego!”   _ Shit. _  A new something rose up in Lance’s countenance and he stared into Keith’s eyes with focus and fury.

“Why do you care, exactly?”

The emphasis he put on the last word made Keith take a step back, “What?”

“Why do you care, Keith?”  Lance stepped towards him and poked a finger into his chest, “I flirt with people all the time - and, sure, I annoy you and you pout about it - but tonight you’re angry about it.  What I want to know is why that makes you so uncomfortable.  Because it was blatantly aimed at you this time?  Worried it wasn’t just a game?  Worried I might actually mean it?”

_ They’re purple _ and  _ oh shit _ mingled in Keith’s mind as he took another step back.

“You’re not worth it.”  He turned on his heels, “I’m going to bed.”

“I saw the blush, Keith.”  Lance’s voice was like a hot knife down his spine and he froze, “On the back of your neck.  So either you really hate me, or -”  His voice trailed off and led somewhere Keith wasn’t ready to go.

He looked over his shoulder with a cold glare, “Fuck off, Lance.”  Keith fought the urge to run as he made his way to the exit.  He sure as hell wasn’t about to show weakness now.

**Author's Note:**

> My favorite line in this chapter was, “‘I saw the blush, Keith. … So either you really hate me, or -’” Feel free to stroke my ego and let me know your favorite line(s) in the comments.


End file.
